Sunday, May 2, 2010

Tons of windows smashed and Cafe Pergolesi, which supplied information to the government concerning those being charged with the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (see: Support the AETA4,) had their porch set on fire. Only one arrest. Well done, Santa Cruz!

A large group of protesters demonstrating at a May Day rally for worker's and immigrant rights downtown broke off into a riot vandalizing about a dozen businesses around 10:30 p.m. Saturday, police said.

Many in the group were carrying makeshift torches as they marched, breaking storefront windows and writing "anarchist graffiti" on buildings, according to Capt. Steve Clark. Many businesses sustained multiple broken windows including very large storefront windows at Urban Outfitters and The Rittenhouse building. Police believe at least 15 businesses suffered damage.

The violence was initiated from a group holding a rally at the town clock for May Day. Windows at Jamba Juice and Velvet Underground were left shattered and graffiti including anarchy signs were tagged onto buildings.

Because of the size and violent demeanor of the crowd, Santa Cruz police asked for help from all agencies in the county to break up the riot. At one point, protesters lit a fire on the porch of Caffe Pergolesi and blocked access to firefighters, officers said. Police were able to clear out the demonstrators before more damage was caused.

A large rock sat outside Verizon Wireless on the 100 block of Cooper Street, where vandals tried to break the window twice, according to Clark."The damage that was caused was without purpose," Clark said. "It was senseless violence that victimized a community who cannot afford to be victimized in this manner. This did nothing to add credit to whatever they believed their cause was."

One person, 24-year-old Jimi Haynes, a transient from Fresno County, was arrested for felony vandalism for damaging a window. Haynes is also wanted on a parole violation, Clark said. Police are searching for others responsible for the damage. Protesters cleared the downtown area around midnight.

"Our entire team of investigators are processing the scene of violence for evidence," Clark said. "We will be looking at video available to try to ID who's responsible."

Haynes was observed traveling with this group and breaking windows at the Dell Williams Jewelry store. Haynes broke two large display windows in the front of the store. The witnesses followed him and called police. Haynes was located by arriving Watsonville PD officers who detained Haynes, Clark said.

Haynes is on parole out of Fresno County for burglary. He has been in Santa Cruz for the past several weeks where he has established an arrest history, Clark said. Haynes admitted to participating in the rally after receiving a flyer at a local anarchist café. Haynes was booked into Santa Cruz County Jail.

Once order was restored, police detectives worked throughout the night to collect evidence and document the damage to each of the businesses, Clark said. The police department guarded exposed storefronts, and arranged for private security to watch the businesses until windows could be boarded, and responsible persons contacted.

Multiple stores, luxury cars, and an ATM all attacked. Unfortunately, there were eleven arrests, as well. Find out how to support them here.

Most of those arrested for a rash of vandalism Saturday night in downtown Asheville listed addresses in Eastern North Carolina and out of state, according to arrest warrants.

Only two listed an Asheville address. At least five of the suspects appear to be students at colleges and universities. The suspects ages ranged from 17-26.

All but one of the 11 suspects arrested were each charged with seven counts of misdemeanor injury to personal property and three counts of injury to real property. Each was being held under $10,000 bond. One man was charged with 11 counts and had an $11,000 bond. All are scheduled to appear in court on the charges Monday morning.

Carsky is listed as a senior biology student at UNCA, according to the school directory. Allgeier is a sophomore studying women’s studies and art in Chapel Hill, the student directory shows. Stezer attends Alamance Community College in Graham, and Ullian goes to Goddard College in Plainfield, Vt., arrest warrants show.

About 10:45 p.m. Saturday, a group of between 20-30 people wearing dark clothing, some wearing masks and carrying backpacks, threw items, including newspaper boxes, through windows of several businesses along O'Henry Avenue. A front window of the Asheville Citizen-Times was shattered, as were multiple storefronts at the Grove Arcade. An ATM was smashed at the RBC on O'Henry.

Multiple cars parked on Battery Park had their windows smashed.

The violence is likely linked to the observance of May Day, a day for marking worker solidarity that has been seized upon for anti-capitalism displays of violence, especially by self-proclaimed anarchist groups in Europe.

Several in the group yelled unintelligably as they vandalized. The group walked south on O'Henry Avenue and turned left on Battery Park Avenue. Some walked through the alley beside the Citizen-Times, where several employees of the paper had rushed to ensure the safety of their cars.

Carmel's chef Mary Scherger said she was having a shift drink at the Page Avenue restaurant when she saw the group smash out a window on a BMW parked along Battery Park Avenue.

"That's when I yelled for my manager to come out," she said.

Scherger said she saw some of them run toward Haywood Street and a few run up the stairwell from Wall Street parking garage ditching their garb as police moved in.

Scherger said she recalled a similar act of group vandalism last year, but the group did far less damage.

"In the latest hours of May Day, a gang of masked anarchists and anti-authoritarians attacked a Wells Fargo in Denver. This rage-fueled rupture took place for a number of reasons, including blah blah blah blah blah GEO group blah blah blah blah prisonocracy blah blah blah corporate pieces of shit sucking the blood of the human race blah blah blah blah blah... Fuck Wells Fargo.

A whole bunch of windows were shattered with a wide variety of stones procured from the lovely landscaping areas around the bank. In a true display of diversity of tactics, larger rocks were thrown through doors and first floor windows, while smaller rocks knocked out panes thought to be out of reach. All participants dissolved safely into the night, a May Day properly celebrated.

Solidarity with all those that got wild for May Day, the fighters in Greece, our comrades in struggle in Oaxaca and all seeking total liberation from capitalist totality blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

A bunch of objects of capital are negated and five of our team are arrested. Anyone have any more info?

Around noon, several Banks, ATMs, and American Apparel, and several other corporate storefronts on Broadway were attacked by a breakaway march dozens strong. Police swarmed the rally as it approached Union Square, arresting 5 individuals at random while the rest dispersed safely.

Anarchists reclaim the streets, smash a Wells Fargo, and occupy a building, if only for a hot minute. YouTube comments make it seem like more was attacked, but info on this all is scarce. Eleven arrests.

Last night a San Francisco May Day demonstration by Black Bloc anarchists turned into an occupation when they took over an abandoned school to claim it for the homeless of the City.

After a few hundred Black Bloc anarchists marched around different parts of the city to commemorate May Day, a.k.a. International Workers' Day, some of them broke into an abandoned school near the intersection of 16th and Mission streets and occupied it.

"This school is sitting empty, they're not using it while we have so many homeless people on the streets. Why doesn't the city let the homeless stay here?" said one anarchists, who refused to give his name.

San Francisco police, who'd been tracking the march from the beginning, responded by closing off Mission Street between 15th and 16th streets, then clearing the sidewalks of both bystanders and anarchists.

The anarchists locked the gates behind them. They'd come with various items that clearly showed this was not a spur-of-the-moment action but instead had some amount of planning behind it.

After a stand-off and negotiations between them and the police that lasted about two hours, the anarchists either voluntarily removed themselves from the property or were arrested and forcibly removed.

With every bank robbery, every so-called "pointless" act of vandalism, and every seemingly random attack on everyday life, we see a qualitative rip in the biopolitical tissue. When the word "society" equates to an intense atomization that concurrently sublimates the unwilling individual into a functional citizen enmeshed in the capitalist relationship, we seek refuge in these anti-social acts and can only hope for their immediate contamination of the rest of the population.